Inside Man
by bananafangirl
Summary: The New Brotherhood is rising in power, cutting a bloody path into the eye of the public. And they have a man on the inside of the X-men now, a spy that no one will notice or question. Curiosity killed the cat, they say, but she isn't always a cat.
1. Prologue

Everything smelled like blood and pain, and she was the cause of it all. That was perhaps the most empowering feeling in the world, holding the lives of others in the palm of her hand, and snuffing them out with inhuman ease. Then again she _wasn't_ human, she was better, she was stronger, she succeeded everywhere they failed.

_Homo Superior_ Magneto had called them and she had followed along like a good little student, nodding and smiling and believing every word he said, following him to what should have been her death (or at least the death of her powers) at Alcatraz. Even after that she followed him, devoted entirely to the cause, watching and waiting while he slowly regained his strength, doing what he could not.

"What do you want done with them?" She looked around at the cowering figures as she waited for an answer, smiling cruelly at those few who dared look up and meet her eyes.

"Kill them." The tinny voice that came through the radio still retained its air of easy command, "All of them."

Her hand clutched a little tighter on the gun in her hand, a crude weapon but one that kept her from being identified by the distinctive mark of her powers. "My pleasure."

There was nothing they could do to stop her, any of them. One by one they died, screams echoing from their companions, quickly drowned out by another gunshot. The last one was a child, small and fair, innocent looking in every way despite the blood and tears staining his round face. She raised the gun one last time, turning on her heel to face the child, and pulled the trigger.

A faint click, no bullets were left. With a growl of frustration she cast the weapon aside, its clatter against the tile the only thing to break the silence for long moments. "It's alright, kiddo." Her tone was syrupy sweet, gentle, unfitting of her cold demeanor and bloodstained clothes. "You're going to be alright." A smile cracked her cold mask and she held out a hand that was meant to be reassuring but only made the child flinch away.

"My m-mom." The little _animal_ scrambled backwards across the floor, slipping in the pooling blood. "You killed her."

"No." She crouched down a few feet away, hand still outstretched. "I killed a threat, an inconvenience, nothing so important as to be called _mother_ by a prodigy such as you." _Lies._ "You're like me, you're special. I can take you somewhere those gifts will truly be developed, away from all these weak, pathetic humans." The last word spit as though it was a curse, a sneer on her face. "Just come with me."

"You promise you won't…?" A sob, and he gestured at the bodies surrounding him.

"I promise." She beckoned him forward and reluctantly he took her hand, allowing her to pull him into her arms gently. "I won't let you die." Her arms closed around his tiny waist, hugging him to her tightly, hands inching up his blood stained chest to close around his shoulders a little too tightly. "Just close your eyes, and when you wake up we'll be somewhere _safe_." _You will be at least, safe from all this hell on earth. Wish I could go with you._

Obediently the child closed his eyes, curling back into her grip instinctively. "If you say so."

He was so small, one of her hands nearly doubled around his pale neck, nails scraping at his neck. "I do, I promise." It only took a moment, a thought, and her carefully trimmed nails morphed into vicious feline claws and buried themselves in the boy's throat. His scream became a choked off gargle, his blood spilt warm and wet over her bare hands and arms. "I'm sorry." She released him as he went limp, letting him slide to the floor like a rag doll and join the others. "But you're better off dead."

There was nothing to clean her hands on but her own jeans, she wiped them off hurriedly and glanced around. Across the room her gun lay by the head of a dead man, coated in thick blood. She left it, she could get another one, at the moment she needed to be gone as quickly as possible.

On the outside it was just another office building, she glanced back and smirked coldly as the alarms began sounding only after she had stepped out of the door. It was too late, they were all dead, including the innocents in the lobby. "Mission complete, I've got it." Her satisfaction was obvious in the tone of her voice.

"Good, return immediately. Take care not to be seen. The police should arrive shortly and then you will be identified."

"I know, I know. It doesn't matter though, they never have to see my face again." If she didn't have something to carry they never would have needed to see it in the first place, unfortunately objects never survived the transformation. "I'll be back in an hour tops, and I expect a drink waiting for me when I get there." Without waiting for a reply she turned off the radio, dropped it and crushed it beneath one heavy boot. There was no need for it anymore and it would only make her look suspicious. As if being soaked in blood, none of which belonged to her, and dressed entirely in black didn't arouse enough suspicion already.

It was a long way home when one had only two feet, unfortunately, and none of her forms with four could carry a disk in a back pocket. She set off at a jog, black hair whipping in the wind behind her and a smile on her face. Nothing could go wrong now. No one even knew they still existed. The New Brotherhood would take the world by surprise, and this time they would win.

** What do you think? Confusing I know, but was it any good?**


	2. Boy

She had discovered long ago that traveling as a cat made life easier. No one looked twice at a little black-and-white housecat wandering the streets of a suburban neighborhood, no one cared if that cat sat on the fence of a particular house looking in the window and watching the people within for hours. People did however look twice at a young woman with a face full of piercings and a black trenchcoat (evidence of her teenage years that she'd never quite had the heart to get rid of). They whispered and questioned if that same young woman spent too long stopped on the sidewalk or perched in a front yard not her own. Things like that couldn't be afforded in her line of work. Second glances got you recognized from the news footage.

It felt uncomfortable being on a level with people's feet, ducking and dodging out of the way of teenage boys on skateboards and occasionally having her tail stepped on. But it was the only acceptable form she could manage. A panther would get shot as soon as looked at walking down a street. So she raced across another street, barely avoiding being run over, and dashed up the driveway of the house she had spent the past month staking out.

There was a perfect spot on their back fence where she could see into the room of a young teenage boy, the one she was supposed to be watching. A few years ago it might have made her feel dirty to look into his room, to watch his daily life. Now it was just business, just another day in the life of a mutant terrorist. Watching acne-faced teenage boys was definitely not what she had signed on for when offered the gig, but it got her a place to sleep and the bills paid along with the mass amounts of food needed to fuel her mutation. She never asked how, she honestly didn't want to know where the old man got the money.

The kid was running late that day, she knew because she had been watching the front gates of his highschool and walked behind him most of the way home. It was all too easy to stay unnoticed in the shadows, he never paid much attention to his surroundings. She almost felt bad for him. If she had any intentions of kill him it would have been disgustingly easy. Someday that would get him killed, the easy targets always went first, especially when they were such dangerous mutants.

She settled on the back fence as comfortably as was possible, cursing Magneto again for sending her. While it was easy for her to watch him it was not at all glamorous, exciting, or comfortable. She would be half asleep by the time he got home no doubt. And she was.

When the light in the small room she had spent the past hour staring into finally flipped on she shook out of her trance, eyes suddenly sharp and interested. If the boy followed his usual schedule he would collapse on the bed for half an hour and shoot bolts of light (energy of some sort, even Magneto wasn't sure what) at the ceiling, then get up and play video games. At which point it was safe for her to go through the dog door in the kitchen (as long as no one else was home) and pick her way through the mess of a house to his bedroom.

He did follow his schedule, she watched the distorted colored light dance through the window until he stopped and sat up. That was her cue. She jumped easily from the fence, landing gracefully in the garden and picking her way through the bushes. The dog door was heavy and frequently stuck, though the hundred pound German Sheppard the boy's brother kept had no trouble leaping through it to chase after her.

As it had been every day for the past week, his door was slightly open. She dashed through and pushed her weight against it, slamming it shut in the massive dog's face. She hated that animal. Dogs had never been her cup of tea, even as a child long before her powers manifested. They were big and loud and messy. Cats were small, quiet, and graceful. You didn't need to bathe them every week because they'd rolled in something, they cleaned themselves. It was only appropriate that her favorite form was one.

The boy looked up, smiling when he spotted her still tense form. "The puppy bothering you again?" He asked teasingly. That thing was no puppy. It was huge. "Come 'ere." He patted the bed beside him, picking up an xbox controller in the same motion.

Obediently she jumped up onto the bed and collapsed beside him, back pressed against his thigh. A hand stroked through her soft fur and she purred, more for his benefit than out of any actual enjoyment of the feeling. "It's been a long day, Sweetheart." If she was in human form she would have laughed, he had no idea.

After a moment the annoying sound of a fake rifle began. She didn't tense as she had the first few days, used to it now. Simply tried to shut it out, ignore it, rather than scan the room for a threat that didn't exist. "You can only stay for an hour today." The boy murmured, as though he actually expected the cat to understand and completely unaware that she did. "My mom's getting home early," His mother was allergic to cats and unaware that he hid one in his room most days. "to help me pack."

The reminder of his upcoming departure was a reminder that she needed to do her job fast. Get into the boy's affections so that he would take her along for the trip, to the Xavier Institute. No one would question a boy's pet wandering the halls. She could listen to everything and retrieve necessary information, track their moves. If she was careful. If she wasn't caught by an amateur telepath. If…too many ifs. But it was her job to deal with situations full of 'if's and 'maybe's that could get her killed. She was used to it. Or at least that was what she told herself.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with you. I can't just leave you here alone, there's no one to take care of you." The boy mumbled to himself, stroking a hand briefly through her fur before going back to the game.

_Take me with you._ It was more emotion than thought, carefully implanted in his mind to feel as though it was his own idea. She had been doing the same thing for days now, constructing emotions and ideas in his mind and layering them into something like attachment too deep to be ignored. _You can take care of me yourself if you take me with you._

"I don't know if they allow animals there or I'd take you." _Ask._ "I'll ask them when they come to pick me up." Content with the sincerity rolling off the boy she turned over and curled closer to his leg. It was naptime, she wouldn't get another chance to sleep until the next morning while he was in school.

**Yes, I do realize that I have yet to mention her name. It is the same girl from the last chapter. Three people have this this story on alert, and only one has reviewed. Please review people!**


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